Everything was set up for the New Orleans Saints to trade down in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. A historic streak of 13 offensive players — including an unprecedented six quarterbacks — set up the Saints at No. 14 with all of this year’s top defenders available. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport even reported that the Saints were picking up the phone and talking with teams who wanted to trade up.
But Mickey Loomis couldn’t be dissuaded. After working the phones for five minutes Loomis didn’t find an offer worth accepting, and the Saints chose to stay put and pick Oregon State right tackle Taliese Fuaga.
It makes sense. There were two of this year’s top offensive linemen remaining, between Fuaga and Washington left tackle Troy Fautanu, and there’s no guaranteeing that they both would have made it to the Saints had they traded down too far. Still, it’s disappointing to see Loomis continue to pass on trading down and acquiring more picks when his team badly needs more help restocking the depth chart. We’ll see if there are more trade-down opportunities later inn the draft.
